Pe"ri*od (?), n. [L. periodus,
Gr. &?; a going round, a way round, a circumference, a period of time;
&?; round, about + &?; a way: cf. F. période.]
1. A portion of time as limited and determined by
some recurring phenomenon, as by the completion of a revolution of one
of the heavenly bodies; a division of time, as a series of years,
months, or days, in which something is completed, and ready to
recommence and go on in the same order; as, the period of the
sun, or the earth, or a comet.
2. Hence: A stated and recurring interval of
time; more generally, an interval of time specified or left
indefinite; a certain series of years, months, days, or the like; a
time; a cycle; an age; an epoch; as, the period of the Roman
republic.
How by art to make plants more lasting than their
ordinary period.
Bacon.
3. (Geol.) One of the great divisions
of geological time; as, the Tertiary period; the Glacial
period. See the Chart of Geology.
4. The termination or completion of a
revolution, cycle, series of events, single event, or act; hence, a
limit; a bound; an end; a conclusion. Bacon.
So spake the archangel Michael; then paused,
As at the world's great period.
Milton.
Evils which shall never end till eternity hath a
period.
Jer. Taylor.
This is the period of my ambition.
Shak.
5. (Rhet.) A complete sentence, from
one full stop to another; esp., a well-proportioned, harmonious
sentence. "Devolved his rounded periods."
Tennyson.
Periods are beautiful when they are not too
long.
B. Johnson.
&fist; The period, according to Heyse, is a compound
sentence consisting of a protasis and apodosis; according to Becker,
it is the appropriate form for the coördinate propositions
related by antithesis or causality. Gibbs.
6. (Print.) The punctuation point [.]
that marks the end of a complete sentence, or of an abbreviated
word.
7. (Math.) One of several similar sets
of figures or terms usually marked by points or commas placed at
regular intervals, as in numeration, in the extraction of roots, and
in circulating decimals.
8. (Med.) The time of the exacerbation
and remission of a disease, or of the paroxysm and
intermission.
9. (Mus.) A complete musical
sentence.
The period, the present or current time, as
distinguished from all other times.
Syn. -- Time; date; epoch; era; age; duration; limit; bound;
end; conclusion; determination.
Pe"ri*od (?), v. t. To put an end
to. [Obs.] Shak.
Pe"ri*od, v. i. To come to a
period; to conclude. [Obs.] "You may period upon this, that,"
etc. Felthman.
